• featured a Photoshopped image of Clinton sporting "She Devil" horns while discussing Republican efforts to demonize her;
• repeatedly likened Clinton to "Nurse Ratched," the scheming, heartless character from the mental hospital drama One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest;
• described her laugh as a "cackle," suggested she was "anti-male," "witchy," and was on a "short ... leash";
• referred to Clinton as "Madame Defarge" and described male politicians who endorsed Clinton as "castratos in the eunuch chorus";
• compared Clinton to a "strip-teaser," wondered whether she was "a convincing mom," referred to Clinton's "cold eyes" and the "cold look" she supposedly gives people;
• claimed that "some men" say Clinton's voice sounds like "fingernails on a blackboard."
But oops, those aren't funny or clever or "benign." Instead, they're offensive to people who at least pretend to care how women are portrayed in the press. So The New York Times plays dumb and pretend Matthews is just a tad horny. That'sthe extent of his sexism; he's incorrigible. And c'mon, what's more adorable than watching powerful men in their 60s publicly lust after women often half their age?
Please note this odd, yet crucial, point: Matthews' openly sexist streak extends only to Democratic and liberal women, and that's another reason the press plays dumb. Because media elites would never anoint Matthews the Hot Journalist if he went on and on about how Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) was too ambitious, or how Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was "witchy," or how the voice of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sounded like fingernails being run across a chalkboard, or how Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) had "cold eyes."
That would be considered offensive and out of bounds. But to suggest Clinton's a "witchy," "anti-male" Nurse Ratched? That's deemed by the Beltway elites to be shrewd, astute, and fearless.
See, misogyny pays. And according to the Times, Matthews has three Mercedes in his driveway to prove it.
By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America